Saturday, 12 April 2014

Mule got Wood

When I tell people I have a Wood frame on my dirt track bike, I sometimes see their face cloud as they think, just for a second, 'He's got a wooden motorcycle?' but they usually don't say it. The owner of this bike could stir it up further.

Sideburn's mailbox is bursting with Dirt Quake III and Dirt Quake USA pre-entries so I'm having to delete a lot of older emails. One I found, that I remembered coming in, but somehow didn't deal with - was from Mule in San Diego, California.

For me, Mule is consistently the best street tracker builder in the world. He's been doing it longer than anyone. He has a niche, but also pushes the boundaries and comes up with some beautiful solutions when he makes a road bike look like a racer, or makes what is essentially a very squirelly race bike into a competent, legal road bike.

This bike is the follow up to Web Surfer he built for Cycle World show, years ago.
It's an oil-in-frame chassis Sportster. The lacquered multiply wooden seat mixed with a silver and beige tank should not work - it doesn't on paper, but I just think it looks neat with its 1962 Huntingdon Beach vibe. And that exhaust and the Morris mag style wheels...

Read about Mule in Sideburn 3 and his incredible Streetmaster in Sideburn 8.